Beard,Florian - Vertigo - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Sliding between the bodies in the street, cutting across the contrails that bisect our sky, Wand find melody and the anxiety beats as they hum the soundtrack for a new gravitational center. Seeking connections against the plan of niche interest and anonymity, Vertigo is the sound of slippage, rocks of contradiction (in soft focus); feet lost, regained, lost again, a multi-chromatic swaying, more automatic, associative, directed, in time.

In rendering homage to the master of Padua on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of his death, the choice proved to be delicate given the abundance of music of constant and acceptable quality. David Plantier and Annabelle Luis have selected the 5 unpublished sonatas in this programme from Manuscript 9796, preserved in the Bibliotheque nationale de France, and taken from the Italian city in 1796 by Napoleon's army as a prize of war. Four of these date from the latter years of Tartini. They all have in common an extreme virtuosity necessary for performance, yet also the necessity of a perfect mastery of the instrument for producing a natural, musical version, the reflection of the composer's typical cantabile. David Plantier is without question the baroque violinist most suited for this mission, having been a passionate defender of Tartini and his music for years. Giuseppe Tartini often performed in duets with his cellist friend the abbé Vandini. The destiny of these two formidable musicians was indivisible, and it is this historic duet that the Duo Tartini aims to bring back to life; the violin and the cello give this richly diverse music a setting of velvet tones, they revitalize the beauty and modernity within so as to touch the hearts of contemporary listeners.

The operatic fantasy, as a vehicle for the display of virtuosity, came into it's own in the 19th century, notably with the 'demon violinist' Paganini, whose variations on Rossini' I Palpiti are included here.